Qamdo, in ancient times, was called Chamuduo, and during the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it was one of the four major Hutu Ketu stations in Kang and Tibet, and it was the only way for Sichuan and Yunnan to enter Tibet. Many Han merchants from Sichuan, Yunnan and Shaanxi did business here.

In the first year of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai transferred Yin Changheng, the governor of Sichuan, to serve as the envoy of the Sichuan border town and the commander-in-chief of the Western Expeditionary Army, and led the troops to the west.

As a result, the Sichuan army broke the Tibetan army between Litang and Batang, and recovered Chamuduo, Chaya and other places. A few years ago, the Tibetan army captured Chamuduo again, and then the British in Gui'er came in again, and the two sides signed a Sichuan-Tibet-Qamdo armistice treaty.

We discussed with everyone about going to Tibet the next day, and although everyone was a little surprised, they still didn't say anything. I went to the Rising Sun Temple again and told Khenpo Gonqu Tenzin about going to Tibet, and Khenpo Gonqu Tenzin also wrote a letter for us to the living Buddha of Jokhang Temple, Xiazha Living Buddha, saying that if there was anything wrong, he said that he could find him.

The Iron Rod Lama told us that it is not permissible to enter Tibet with too many weapons, especially the more powerful weapon such as the grenade.

He suggested that we replace all the long guns with short ones, and then find a way to get to Lhasa.

We handed over all the spears to the lama with iron rods, and each man carried two slots.

When everything was ready, we set off with some of the pilgrims from the post station who were going to enter Tibet for worship.

There were often "bandits" along the way, and when these pilgrims saw that we were all sturdy young men and armed men, they were naturally willing to go with us.

To get to Qamdo, you have to climb over a snow-capped mountain called Kagongla Mountain at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters, and there is a hot spring under this snow-capped mountain, which I am more impressed.

We said that it was an expedition team to the snow-capped mountains, but because everyone had weapons, and they didn't bring any goods, they didn't look like businessmen, and there was no certificate from the central government.

Fortunately, at this time, I took out the road slip signed by Solang Zeren on behalf of the book, and when the Tibetan army saw it, they asked for instructions again, and then they were released.

We stayed in Qamdo for a day, bought some necessities, and exchanged a lot of Tibetan silver.

Then the next day, it passed through Lagon, Luolongzong (county), Dashuo, Lazi, crossed the Xiagongla Snow Mountain, and arrived at Jiagong, crossed the Wazi Mountain to Gongbu Jiangda, and arrived at the bank of the Wusu River, all the way was smooth, and Lhasa was already close at hand.

Lhasa has a dry climate and long sunshine, so it is also called Sunshine City. It is surrounded by high mountains, with Lhasa being the only place at the bottom of the basin.

The day after we arrived in Lhasa, we went to the Lhasa River to take a good bath according to Tibetan custom, and then decided to go to the Jokhang Temple.

Ding Sanye once said that a Tibetan once told him that Lhasa was at the bottom of the sea in ancient times, and from the topography, it looked like a witch with her back facing up, and the Jokhang Temple was established to suppress this witch.

The Jokhang Temple was built by the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo and has a history of more than 1,000 years.

Later, the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties were expanding, and now it has a considerable scale. Most of the monasteries in Tibet belong to a certain Tibetan Buddhist sect, while the Jokhang Monastery is

It is a temple that is respected by all denominations.

For a long time, the "Golden Vase Lot" ceremony of the reincarnation of the Living Buddha has always been carried out in the Jokhang Temple

Yes.

It is worth mentioning that there is a Buddha statue here, which was transported from Chang'an by Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty to marry Songtsen Gampo, and is a life-size statue of Sakyamuni at the age of twelve, which is regarded as a holy object by the Tibetans.

The whole body of this Buddha statue and the Buddha shrine are decorated with jewels everywhere, and the table in front of the Buddha statue is also enshrined with gold lamps, each lamp is made of several catties of gold. It is said that all of them were worshiped by the Buddhist leaders, regents, princes, and Tusi of the past dynasties, and ordinary people have the ability to worship golden lanterns, and they cannot be placed in front of the Buddha statue without the permission of the Jokhang Temple.

In the past, in the mainland, the old people told us that we should not expose our wealth, but when we arrived in Tibet, we looked at this splendid Buddha hall, where had we seen such a luxurious place before, it was really an eye-opener.

We took the letter from Guru Gonqu Tenzin to see the Living Buddha Shadzha, who was about 50 years old, and after reading the letter from Guru Kunqu Tenzin that we had brought, he asked with some confusion, "Are you going to Mount Gangdis?" It's still thousands of miles away from Lhasa, and it's quite high and sparsely populated, so you have to think about it. ”

Naturally, we also have some scientific exploration, and we are not afraid of hard talk.

However, this Shazha Living Buddha was not very interested in these things, but because of the face of Khenpo Kunqu Tenzin, he asked us if there was anything we needed help with.

Before we came, we had already made a general list of the things we wanted, some things needed to be replenished because they were lost in the Grand Canyon, and some things such as spears and bullets were left in the Rising Sun Temple because they couldn't be brought to Tibet, and now they need to be rematched.

The most important thing is that the local government in Tibet needs a road slip to reduce unnecessary investigation and entanglement by the local Tibetan army.

The Living Buddha looked at the things we listed, and most of them were just scratched out, just crossed out the grenades and road strips.

We thought it was very strange, Shazha Living Buddha said: "You may not know the current situation in Lhasa, now the relationship between the lama and the Tibetan army and the "Westernized" forces in Lhasa is quite tense, and you are from the Han region, if it was a few years ago, of course there would be no problem in opening the road or something, but now, this has to go to the Kashag government to open it." As for the grenades, because of the Langserin incident two years ago, they are now no longer in the hands of the lamas who have taken up the warehouse. ”

We were a little disappointed, but there was nothing we could do, so the Living Buddha of Shazha instructed us to go down and ask the lamas below to help us prepare, and then said that we were going to attend a puja, and after a few words of greeting, we left.

We thought it was very strange at the time, but that was only later that we learned that the Living Buddha had been held hostage last year and participated in the siege of an important figure of Tibetan Buddhism in Norbulingka, and now it was the time for that important person to settle accounts after the autumn, and there were rumors that he and several other living Buddhas and khenpos who participated in the event were going to be exiled.

But later, this matter was clarified, and when we returned to Lhasa, it was another scene, of course, this is all a later story, not for the time being.

The next day, we still got the equipment we needed from the lama and seven new British Lee Enfield rifles that we said had just bought back from India, this gun used 7.7mm bullets, and later the Nationalist army was also equipped with some of them, commonly known as the British 77.

This kind of gun firepower is very powerful, and the lethality and power are not bad, other rifles are 5-round magazines, this gun is a 10-round magazine, but it is relatively difficult to reload bullets, so compared to the British 77, we still prefer the Mauser rifle later.

We were walking on the streets of Lhasa, thinking about the road and worrying, when Mao suddenly said on Tuesday: "I have to go to find the family of Solang Zeren's Daiben." ”

This also reminded me that Solang Zeren's family is a nobleman in Lhasa, and maybe he can really get a road.

So we followed the address that Solang Zeren told us at that time, the Solang Zeren family used to be a powerful and wealthy family in the Mangkang region of eastern Tibet, and it is said that most of the foreign wool trade in Tibet was done by their family, and the real development of their family began more than 20 years ago, when their patriarch became a close confidant of the big man in Tibet.

This time it went very smoothly, after Solang Zeren's brother heard about us, and had Solang Zeren's letter as a certificate, he personally took us to handle the road, saw that we were going to such a far place, and gave us a lot of ghee and local rice, dried meat and other things, full of horseback.

I asked to see if I could get grenades, gasoline and the like, but these two things were really scarce in Tibetan areas, and grenades were really hard to find, so we only got a small amount of gasoline.

Compared with the ancient city of White Wolf in Kangzang, we were aviation signal guns, new grenades, and a water Mauser rifle with a slot, this time our equipment is a lot simpler, but thinking that in this unfamiliar place, we can get these, we are still more content, not for the help of these two nobles, we estimate that we can't buy these with money.

The journey from Lhasa to the Gangdis Mountains was extremely long and sparsely populated, so we adapted to it for a few days before setting off in Lhasa, a relatively low altitude area.

Early in the morning, we got up early in the morning and rode towards Shigatse and Lhatse.